Kew to open giant new Children’s Garden in 2019

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has revealed that it will be opening a giant Children’s Garden in spring 2019, designed to inspire Primary aged children.

The new addition is set to officially open on 18th May this year and will cover 10,000m2 natural space.

The garden has been designed around the elements that plants need to survive, earth, air, sun and water, and will include more than 100 mature trees known as Kew’s ‘old giants’.

The garden is primarily aged at children in Primary school and early Secondary.

The new Children’s Garden

Children will be able to play and explore as they wind their way through the landscape, discovering hidden treasures and adventures and developing their love of nature, plants and the outdoors along the way.

Pupils will enter the Garden through a tunnel of scented star jasmine plants before arriving at a 200-year-old English Oak tree, surrounded by a new aerial walkway four metres above the ground.

From here, the journey of discovering what plants need to grow begins. The first element to explore is the Earth Garden, a giant sand pit with a play hut village surrounded by Bamboo plants and tunnel slides for muddy adventures.

Next along the trail is the Air Garden, with winding paths, giant windmill flowers, pollen spheres, hammocks, swings and trampolines. A mini amphitheatre nestled under the trees can be used for storytelling and a seating area.

The Sun Garden is next; a large open space where children can let their imagination run wild beside a ring of sunflowers, cherry trees and pink candy floss grass. Intricate pergolas festooned with edible fruits will take children on a sensory adventure.

Lastly, the Water Garden is filled with water pumps for kids to use to control the flow of the water through to another splash pool. Water lily stepping stones will engage children in the water cycle and why it is important to plants.

School information

A variety of school visits can be arranged with can include tours, talks and sessions. Teachers can visit the schools page on the Kew website for information on how to book.

After being voted number one school in Surrey, Shannon Clark spoke to St John’s C of E Primary School’s head teacher Mark Richards to find out what part learning outside the classroom had in their transformational journey.